No Vista for Venom
Back when I bought my Toshiba Satellite laptop, I was both excited and concerned about the ability to upgrade to Vista for an unbelievably low cost. At the time I figured I had enough of a challenge ahead of me just getting used to a new machine — removing all of the bloatware that manufacturers inevitably fob off on consumers, installing the programs that I can’t live without, tweaking it until it was just right. I decided to postpone my Vista upgrade for a time, then forgot all about it until receiving an email last month warning that the offer was about to expire.
So I bit. Sort of.
I bought the upgrade and decided to wait to try it out until I had a chunk of time to spend learning my way around my computer again. Having gone through that very experience back when XP replaced Win98 — which took me several days to get used to — I knew the chances were good that I’d be struggling with a new OS for days, which would quite possibly mean being offline for days, too. So this past Thanksgiving weekend, which I’d told myself I didn’t need to worry about blogging, seemed like a good time to take Vista out for a spin.
I hated it.
It took almost three hours to install, then slowed my laptop’s boot time to a crawl reminiscent of the old PS/2 days… the IBM version, not Sony’s. Meanwhile, my hard drive constantly churned thanks to the numerous unnecessary processes Vista insisted on loading. Then, although I found the Aero interface to be quite lovely, it drained my laptop’s battery so fast that I had to once again tether myself to an electrical outlet just to keep the machine going long enough to read all of my email. So Aero went, but that hardly solved all of the problems.
Vista refused to play nicely with many of the programs that I need on a day-to-day basis. Every time I tried fixing one of those problems another popped up. Eventually it became all too obvious that if I wanted to run Vista I’d have to change just about everything else that I like using, and naturally the changes would all cost money, too.
No thanks.
Yes, I probably could just switch to a Mac… but that would have a steep learning curve, too, in addition to a hefty price tag. I could switch to Linux, but again, I’d need a good chunk of time to learn an all-new OS but at this point I’m a bit reluctant to waste another long weekend as I did trying out Vista.
I’m back to XP, back to my comfort zone, and keeping my fingers crossed that I won’t be forced into using Vista anytime soon. Meanwhile, I’m waiting anxiously for the XP Service Pack 3 update, which is set for release next year. It’s said to speed up performance by 10%, which means that computers running XP will be twice as fast as those running Vista.
So why would anyone bother to switch to Vista, is what I’m wondering. I didn’t notice anything amazing about it, although the Aero interface was quite pretty. Then again, thanks to my friend Margi’s recommendation, I can get a pretty interface now on my XP machine using StarDock.
What, then, is the point of Vista?
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*never tease someone who is dieting* *never tease someone who is dieting* *never tease...
…denero por Senor Bill.
Duh.
Good for you. I blogged about the whole Vista vs XP thing a while back. I can find absolutely NO compelling reason to switch to Vista. None. Same thing about switching to a Mac. I mean, really…Macs have, what, less than a 10th of the programs available for Windows. And Linux is even worse.
Nope. Will stick to XP. It works. Macs (and Vista) may look prettier, but I prefer performance and utility to eye candy.
Personally, I prefer XP. I hate using Vista and at this time I have no choice. My laptop is still in pieces (we took it apart to fix it… ) and my boyfriend’s laptop has Vista. On a daily basis I wish to throw it out the window!
Once I have a computer up and running (no clue as to when that will be) he’s going to gut Vista. He’s going to take out Aero (his battery dies in 15 minutes, too) and he’s going to find the SuperSecretAdministrator rights so that we can actually make changes to the system. We can’t even take out startup programs! Sometimes I can’t even finish an uninstall – sometimes the folder or an item or two won’t get removed and Vista doesn’t think I have the right to delete it.
I hate Vista. XP all the way!
Chelle, I hated the way that the administrator account was disabled by default, too. Here’s how to enable it in Vista:
Right-click on the command prompt and select “Run as Administrator”. Then click “continue” and when the command line comes up type the following:
net user administrator /active:yes
The Administrator account will appear on the Welcome screen at your next startup but it WON’T be password protected, so be sure to set a very strong password for it.
Yay StarDock!
I just nuked Vista off my primary box at home and replaced it with ubuntu linux. I’m not recommending that mind you. But still, I couldn’t use that pos any more.
Vista will be remembered as “Windows ME 2007″
Windows ME? What’s that?
Oh, that would be your point.
I thought XP was disappearing in a few months. (Obviously I need to read your link.)
I played in the Apple store for a little while in NYC. (We don’t have one here.) Unbelievable speed. Husband said it was because the Mac didn’t have such a crappy operating system. When my wonderful 4-year-old XP machine dies (a recently souped-up machine with lots of added memory and stuff, so it’s not slow), I may switch to a Mac. Maybe. There’s going to be a learning curve either way. I’ve had enough of being a Microsoft victim.
Microsoft hasn’t announced XP’s funeral (yet), and judging by the number of folks who are also switching back to XP from Vista, I think they’d be foolish to do so.
I’ve never really felt victimized by Microsoft, but I *am* adamant that programs I pay good money for better be worth it. Vista definitely was not, even with the super cheap upgrade rate I got.
Can you even buy XP? My husband needed a copy to replace Vista on a newly purchased machine (Vista didn’t work with the other programs) and had to get XP on e-bay.
Maybe we are just behind the times.
It’s still for sale on Amazon: Windows XP Home Edition
with SP2 included.
I played around with it since two of my colleagues bought laptops with it already installed. I was tearing my hair out within the first 5 minutes. It had me jumping through hoops just to figure out how to change the desktop wallpaper, no longer just a short 2 clicks away.
I hate it, and will buy a mac and deal with that learning curve if we’re all forced to use vista in the future.
I agree. If we’re FORCED to use Vista, I’ll switch to Mac, too.
Anecdotal information: I have three current machines: XP, Vista, and Linux. I recently got GnuCash running on the XP system, so the Linux system pretty much just sits there as a file server.
The Vista computer is incredibly annoying; I use it just to run Second Life, which is used about half an hour a day as I try to figure out how it works.
Most everything else is done on XP.
Of course, everything I really need to do can be done on the Linux machine, and I will gradually migrate over to it.
In fairness, recognize that during many years of my professional life I was a developer for a variety of Unix, so I am fairly familiar with it. If I want to do something to my home network, I start with Linux since I understand it.
Of course, the Mac OS X is Linux (or some variety of unix) based. Still, I doubt if I could adjust to a single button mouse. (After all, I buy old Gateway 2000 Anykey keyboards, so I can switch the CAPS LOCK and CTRL keys: the CTRL key should be next to the letter A, where Teletype and God intended it to be.)
But, yes, Vista is bad. It is not as bad as Windows ME (Millenium Edition) was, but still very bad.
One should not fear Linux. The installation usually goes fairly easily, and if you don’t have a home network, it is pretty easy to set up. I set up my home network by the old-fashioned method of editing text files in the /etc directory. The desktop (you can use either Gnome or [I forget the name of the other one]) is at least as intuitive to use as Windows. And OpenOffice runs under Linux and has almost all of the functions of Windows Office. (There are a few spreadsheet functions missing, and some of the weird features of Word are not completely supported. But normal users will not find anything missing or strange.)
Of course, the real reason I have Linux is to run LaTeX, a typesetting program. I can’t get the ports to Windows to work. LaTeX is the thing to use if you want good looking documents, particularly ones with mathematics included.
Micro$oft announced a while back they were going to allow certain pc makers to let folks “Downgrade” to XP and continue support for it a bit longer than predicted.
Translation:
Vista is resource Hog and doesn’t work with everything NEW, let alone old, so we may ME it and try to pretend it never happened.
That or they will attempt a rewrite and call it the same thing.
I used to run Linux when 98 was the in thing until I got 2000pro and an ATI AllinWonder that allowed me to surf while watching tv on the same screen with the tv faded in full screen and the web or an e-book behind it. I have XP Home on this laptop and it works ok, but for needing reboots every two days or when ever it forgets there is a usb port with a mouse and wifi dongle attached. 2000 and Linux were great about running forever without a problem.
(I have Ubuntu to try on here soon. I don’t think I have any thing I “Must” have Windows for, so there is little to keep me running Bill’s Crapola)
VH is addicted to his ATI AllInWonder, which is one of the reasons we haven’t migrated to Mac. Me? I can’t stand listening to anything besides Headline News when I’m online. (You’ll never read a novel of mine crediting all of the tunes I listened to while writing. I can’t think when music’s on.)
But I haven’t experienced too many problems running a USB mouse with XP. The few problems that I do get usually arise if I shut the top of the laptop and move to another room. Then around 50% of the time my laptop doesn’t recognize the network, but a reboot fixes the problem.
Oh god this is gonna suck then when I get the teens a new computer then huh? Every computer I’ve looked at comes preloaded with vista. If adults with tons of computer experience hate it and can’t use it, how the hell are my kids gonna be able to use it?
Damn it. Time to dig out (translate to find) my copy of xp and wipe out the os on any new pc I get them.
The Outlook is Kind of Grim…
VK writes about her travails with Vista. Apparently corporate IT has the same misgivings. A survey by King Research indicates…
To KAT (and possibly others):
You do NOT need to buy a computer that comes prebuilt and preloaded with software. For almost the same amount of money, you can go to a local PC retailer and have them put together a computer for you with your choice of hardware (including case). Then have them install whatever you want. Easy. Less bloatware. No Vista.
Kate…have you been in my house??? Have you been spying on me while I struggle and swear at Microsoft and Vista?
I’ve been struggling with the Tai-Tai’s laptop ever since we got it. It takes forever to boot up…battery power lasts about 1 hr…it locks up for no apparent reason…Vista ‘compliant’ software works, but creates other ’security’ issues that block up Vista…it’s driving me crazy.
Just the other night, I began the process of backing up files and folders in anticipation of re-formatting the disc and switching to XP. Or, possibly wiping out everything I have done and going back to the factory version of Vista and starting over.
Vista is a pig.
That it is, Expat. I’ve yet to hear of a home user who actually likes it.
Anyone?
*raises hand cautiously* Don’t hurt me….
re: XP’s death
Their original plan was to retire it a few months after Vista was out of the gate. But the response to Vista has been so abysmal that they’ve recommitted support for xp for a few more years.
Dell had a similar problem when they tried to cut over to Vista only. very very bad customer response so they increased back-pressure on ms for continued support of xp.
If you’ve got an uberbox then vista’s not so bad. The incredible proliferation of “Do you REALLY mean it?” dialogs is just effing foolish. OF COURSE I MEANT IT YOU STOOGE, I CLICKED ON IT!
I’ll probably retreat and pick up another box to put xp pro on. But hopefully I can just wait out the game withdrawl. It’s really rough though.
Of course I wrote this on Linux.
I switched to a MacBook Pro from an older Toshiba Satellite last fall when the hard drive started getting wiggy and the fans started to die. We have a PC in our “office” that will go into Boyo’s room and then as soon as we can afford an iMac or Mac Pro, we’ll never go back.
My MacBook has never crashed, never froze, boots up so fast it’s kind of scary, and other than games, I haven’t found any task that I could do on my PC that I can’t do on my Mac, and my Mac does it smoother and with less headaches.
Learning curve? Once you realize that what you want to do really IS that easy, the learning curve sort of disappears.
Timmer, I’m thinking you jinxed my Satellite. Just this very minute, I moved from my office to the family room and plugged it back in. The cord went POOF! and emitted a huge — and I do mean huge — spark and flash.
A MacBook is still a bit beyond my budget, so I’ve got another cord ordered for overnight delivery.
I bought a “Vista Ready” Dell XPS system last December. By the time they shipped me my copy of Vista in February, I’d already decided to stick with XP, based on advice from authorities like Leo Laporte.
The machine will be a year old in a couple of weeks and my copy of Vista is still in its shrinkwrap.
I do photography and photo editing and Nikon has yet to write a Vista driver for my film/slide scanner. Also, Vista needs 2GB of RAM to run properly. I have that much RAM installed, but can’t reconcile myself to giving it over to such a memory hog.
It’s no surprise that some tech writers have called for Microsoft to abandon Vista as a failure. You know something’s wrong when Dell still offers machines with XP and even Linux.
Apparently there’s also a huge difference between “Vista capable” and “Vista ready”, with the former costing money for additional upgrades to run anything beyond Vista Home (the bottom of the barrel). Both, however, apparently require a huge amount of time removing Vista the instant a person figures out it’s not all that.